Roger Williams (1602-1683)

He is a well know theologian of America who stressed on religious freedom and the need to separate the church from the state which he termed as wall of separation. This idea was ingrained in the first Amendment to the United States Constitution He created the colony of Rhode Islands and the Providence of Plantations in 1636 which became the home of many religious minorities. This is where he practiced his philosophy of freedom of religion and the separation of the church from the church.. He migrated to the New World in the end of 1630, as he was unable to be under the administration of Archbishop William Laud. He refused to be an assistant minister in the Boston Church as he based his faith on three important principles namely, separatism, freedom of religion, and separation of church and state. In 1631, he moved to Plymouth colony where is preaching was well taken up the colonists. Later, dissatisfied by the church in Plymouth he moved back to Salem by the fall of 1633.After becoming the acting pastor of the Salem church in 1634, he again got involved in a lot of controversies with the government and church and finally, in October 1635 he was tried by the General Court and convicted of sedition and heresy and was banished. He then established a settlement in Narragansetts in Rhode Islands which he named Providence as God had brought him this far. Williams also secured a charter for the Providence Plantations from the English Parliament on July 1644 and under a united government it became a safe place all those who were persecuted. His first published book A Key into the Language of America in 1643 was about the Native Americans and it became a best seller instantaneously. However, his other book The Bloody Tenant of Persecution for Cause of Conscience caused an uproar in the English Parliament. He was against slavery, and the law passed in 1652 was an attempt not to allow slavery into to Rhode Island.